So far, I've been trying to keep my mind off the killings at brick kiln in Lahore but have been failing.

The horrible incident is not only about the underprivileged segments of bonded labourers and minorities, it's about the sickness of attitude that makes 'beating a pregnant woman to death, along with her husband' a righteous act. And if that's not enough, the bodies were burned in the kiln.

While we do this to the ones who belong to poor social segments, without even confirming the allegations, we conveniently let those go who manipulate blasphemy law for their vested interest. We didn’t see a similar outrage for the cause when it was proven in the court of law that Khalid Jadoon, the local cleric, had burnt the pages of the Quran to put the blasphemy allegation on Rimsha Masih. Where was the army of vigilante then? Did our passion of ‘forgiveness’ emerged out of blue, because the culprit here was not some poor labourer, or minority worker, but a local imam?

When I first watched Junaid Jamshaid’s video that later landed him in trouble, I was completely taken by the amount of misogyny. In his strong convictions about the inherent flaws of women, he forgot whom he was talking about. Had it not been the blasphemy vigilantism, the video would have gone unnoticed just as all misogynist content routinely does in Pakistan.

Among this vigilante-mentality and their double standards, I don’t think any measures to curb sectarianism and radicalization can be the solution. It's true that 'what we actually need is an entire army of psychiatrists.'

About Me

A media and communication specialist by profession, I love
to write in my free time. Writing feels similar to eating,
breathing or sleeping. I have a thing for social
issues, particularly human rights.

Warning: dark humour may be one of my specialities.

The opinions expressed in this blog are personal, and do not represent any organisation.